Captain Todd Bradstreet of the Murrieta Fire and Rescue Department works to rescue a young boy from a truck that was swept away by fast moving flood waters along Monroe Avenue on Sunday afternoon.
COURTESY OF JOE FANASELLE

Murrieta Fire Department engineer Mike Macalinao and captains Sean DeGrave and Todd Bradstreet are certified swiftwater rescue technicians who each have trained for the risky missions for more than 10 years.

They all have performed water rescues. But none, they said, matched the situation they encountered Sunday, Jan. 22, when they pulled four members of a family – two parents and two young children – from a large pickup that had been overwhelmed by rushing, rising water.

“It’s like stuff you see in the movies,” said Bradstreet, 42, an 18-year veteran of the fire service. “I’ve done little swiftwater rescues here and there, but nothing to this magnitude.”

The incident happened in what’s known as Yoder Wash, an open field area between Los Alamos and Murrieta Hot Springs roads, Capt. Matt Corelli said. Locals use the normally dry dirt-and-sand wash as a road to access neighborhoods. But when heavy rains come, Corelli said, water channels into the area through the northern part of Murrieta.

The driver thought he could get through, but the force of the current moved the truck 50 yards, and it got stuck.

Corelli cautioned motorists against attempting to drive through moving water. Even 12 inches of rushing water can sweep away a small car, and 2 feet of water can carry away almost any vehicle, according to the National Weather Service.

‘THIS IS NO JOKE’

Murrieta firefighters had been on a simpler rescue of a motorist about an hour earlier where they were able to walk the driver out of his car.

But this one was different.

“The first general impression was this is the real deal. This is no joke,” Macalinao said.

A team of 17 firefighters, assisted by Murrieta police, pulled off the rescue.

They first assessed how much time they had; acting more slowly would allow them to put all their safety gear in place in advance, but the rising water didn’t afford them that time.

“The hardest part was coming up with the initial action plan,” Macalinao said. “We cannot mess this up. Whatever plan of action we took, it has to be 100 percent correct and we can’t fail.”

DeGrave, tethered to a fire engine, swam out to calm the family and explain the rescue.

“As far as the number of patients and the quickly moving water, this was the most complex I’ve been on,” said DeGrave, 35, a firefighter for 10 years.

THE RESCUE

A firefighter threw a line with four life jackets attached to it into the wash and allowed it to float to the car, where the father retrieved it.

Firefighters then tethered Bradstreet, who swam to the truck and took the younger child, about 2 years old, from the tight embrace of his mother, hooking the child up to his vest. Bradstreet jumped in the water and was pulled to shore. He returned to rescue the older child, about 4 years old.

“You do so much training all the time and most of the stuff you do (daily responses) is benign, so I was excited to be able to use the training,” Bradstreet said.

“The mother in the car was saying the car was moving so that put a little different feeling – this is getting urgent and we might have to go faster than we wanted to.”

Macalinao, 35, a 12-year veteran, relieved Bradstreet and rescued the mother and then the father, all the while fighting the current.

Brian Rokos writes about public safety issues such as policing, criminal justice, scams, how law affects public safety, firefighting tactics and wildland fire danger. He has also covered the cities of San Bernardino, Corona, Norco, Lake Elsinore, Perris, Canyon Lake and Hemet. Before that he supervised reporters and worked as a copy editor. For some reason, he enjoys movies where the Earth is threatened with extinction.

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